I went to see Villagers play the now-intimate by their standards Whelan’s show last week where Conor O’Brien’s band ran through 19 songs including the entire new album {Awayland} from what I could tell (it’s out January 11th). O’Brien’s new songs are instantly memorable, an ability that so few others have. The band of James Byrne, Cormac Curran, Danny Snow and Tommy McLaughlin are very much part of Villagers now and the new songs were written and played by the band as their songs too. Generally speaking, what we heard bode well for the album, ‘The Waves’ is a canard in that it’s probably the only sonic assault on the record. Elsewhere, there are swirling intense melodies (‘Grateful Song’) that O’Brien has always gone for, quiet folky harmony numbers, a Grizzly Bear-esque tune to finish the album called ‘Rhythm Composer’ (“Honey, the rhythm composes you”), image-centred poetry (broken boats lighthouses, the narrator setting himself on fire on a funeral pyre) and lots of elegant guitar and piano instrumentation.
On the night ‘Nothing Arrived’ (now on iTunes) was particularly memorable for its chorus “I waited for something and something died. So I waited for nothing and nothing arrived.” In recorded form, the new single soars even more. The video was directed by Alden Volney and has Conor creeping around the background of lonely office worker Terrence Bliss’s life. Villagers have live dates in Europe and Ireland in Feb and march next year.
{Awayland} tracklisting:
My Lighthouse
Earthly Pleasure
The Waves
Judgement Call
Nothing Arrived
The Bell
{Awayland}
Passing a Message
Grateful Song
In a Newfound Land You Are Free
Rhythm Composer
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
great idea!!
Hello Nailler,
To be honest I have never heard of the Villager but I like the track it’s very motivational and must be a great track to hear live. On the official site of the villages I see they are kicking off an European Tour just a few days before the launch of their new album as you mentioned “Awayland” but see nothing about where the band members are from maybe you can help us out with that one ?.
Villagers are pretty well known to this audience here in Ireland.
See
http://nialler9.com/tag/villagers/
lovely song and very emotional video. I was his expecting his last number not to come up but the actual ending is heart wrenching – poor fella.